A “reclusive” teenager who “lived in his bedroom” set up a website on which he “demonstrated how to stab a n*****” and showed footage of a lynching, a court heard yesterday.

The youngster, who lives near Fakenham, Norfolk but cannot be identified for legal reasons, is 17 and was 15 when police found the website, magistrates in King's Lynn, Norfolk, were told.

He was given a two-year conditional discharge after admitting distributing “threatening, abusive or insulting” material meaning to “stir” racial hatred, or being reckless as to whether racial hatred would result.

Crown Prosecution Service officials said they thought it was the first time anyone so young had been prosecuted for inciting racial hatred by posting inflammatory material on a website.

Defence lawyers said the youngster had special needs and had been seeking attention.

But a CPS solicitor said teenagers should realise posting racist material on the internet was “not a joke”.